


Don't Forget To Open Your Eyes

by TinySpiney



Series: Of Humans and Androids [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Half-Siblings, Gavin Reed Backstory, Gavin Reed Being an Asshole, Gavin Reed Needs a Hug, Gavin Reed-centric, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:14:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27620552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinySpiney/pseuds/TinySpiney
Summary: [CURRENTLY ON HIATUS]
Relationships: Chris Miller & Gavin Reed, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed, Hank Anderson & Gavin Reed
Series: Of Humans and Androids [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944910
Kudos: 10





	1. Don't Forget To Open Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Don't Forget To Open Your Eyes by MISSIO!!
> 
> Me, back on my bullshit with another Gavin-centric fic? Just as likely as you think!! I'm not done with my favourite rat bastard yet, lads!!
> 
> This fic is basically just Gavin's life up until Back Roses because,,, I absolutely love writing for him,,

_ December 31st 2020 12:40 PM _

  
  


It had been a half hour since Gavin got the text. It was rather simplistic and it was friendly, so it wasn’t like there was anything to worry about. But it was Chris, and he said that he was back in Detroit to stay. That wasn’t something entirely unusual to hear, not really. But it did seem a bit strange considering he was going to school out on the East Coast. Though Gavin read it over and over again trying to understand what Chris meant. Trying to figure out just why he had wanted to come back to the city he always said smelled bad and had terrible traffic. The idea of Chris coming back was an exciting one. He was the only other person Gavin had besides Carl and Hank. Besides two men who had basically become his father figures over the years. So with a deep breath, he took his phone out of his back pocket and shot a message back to his old friend. 

  
  


_ ME: come spend new years w/ me n tell me all abt school _

A few minutes later, Gavin’s phone chimed with a notification. He couldn’t help the small smile on his face at the confirmation that Chris would be over as soon as he could. Apparently he didn’t exactly want to spend New Years with his parents. Yeah, probably not. If Gavin remembered correctly, his parents half-heartedly threatened him with moving in with Gavin if anything were to happen and he dropped out of school. Which...made a weird amount of sense. It wasn’t like Chris to leave something unfinished. He liked to maintain order and make sure things were where they were supposed to be. If he started a task, then he had to finish it. So if he didn’t want to spend the holiday with his parents; then that absolutely meant that something happened. Gavin hoped it was nothing bad. He hoped he was overreacting and that Chris just didn’t want to spend the holiday cooped up in his parents’ house with them. 

Though, ultimately, it wasn’t really any of his business. So Gavin went about cleaning the kitchen,  _ MISSIO _ blasting form the bluetooth speaker he had recently bought. It was a bit nostalgic for him. Elijah used to have CDs of their albums, he even left one in the glove compartment in Gavin’s car. Call him an angry yet sentimental bastard, but Gavin actually used to feel like everything was okay when he listened to the music. Like maybe Elijah knew he cared about him and wanted things to go smoothly in his life. Even if he said he hated him. Even if he said he wanted nothing to do with him. But regardless, everything was okay, actually. Carl was getting more recognition again after he really got back into his painting. Hank was looking for a house to move into because things were great with his wife, apparently they were thinking about starting a family. 

With a somber smile, Gavin mumbled the lyrics to one of the songs and continued cleaning. Elijah was starting to get more recognition in technological circles. Not that Gavin understood any of it, but he wanted to know what was going on in his brother’s life. Was that considered stalking? No, it couldn’t have been. He was just following a promising up and coming inventor that had hopes of changing the world. That was all it was. Gavin didn’t understand technology, not the way those people did. But he trusted their debates and how they spoke about things. Mostly because they actually knew what they were talking about. It was somewhat comforting to hear the technical speech again. Elijah always used to infodump at him when they were younger, about anything and everything relating to robots and AIs. Hell, sometimes Gavin would find himself waking up on the couch with the tech channel still on the television. 

The sound of the front door opening and closing, and Chris calling out that he was home, made Gavin smirk and throw down the dish towel he was using. Of course, being the bastard that he was, he practically tackled Chris in greeting. The two immediately got to catching up on their lives. Apparently Chris was going to school for criminal justice, but wanted to transfer back to a school in Michigan, hence why he was back in the city. Gavin was just...hanging out and vibing until he knew enough to go into the academy and start trying to help change the city from the inside. They two of them joked that everything they did would be together, and they’d end up constantly working with one another on cases that came their ways. Eventually the two somehow ended up sitting on the floor, backs up against the couch. Why they didn’t just sit up there to begin with was a mystery that Gavin didn’t care to solve. 

  
  


“Seriously though,” Gavin grinned at his old friend and laughed quietly. “What if we did that? We could be the best buddy cop routine this city has ever seen!”

“I dunno, Gav. You’re actually a dumbass.” Chris practically howled with laughter when Gavin smacked him in the chest. “Look at you, man! You used to accidentally throw the cup in the trash and put the milk jug in the sink!”

“That was one time, asshole!”

  
  


The two dissolved into obscene laughter, and Gavin flopped back to lay on the floor. He looked up at the living room ceiling with a smile and watched as Chris laid down next to him. Eventually their laughter faded and they began to just...speak. Like they always did, like they always would. Their conversation was long this time. About life and struggles and good things and emotions. Chris wanted to get married and have a family some day, he had decided. Gavin looked over at his friend with an incredulous expression. Chris had never really spoken about that kind of things before. At least, he had never spoken with Gavin about it before. But now that he had brought it up… Gavin could see it. He could see Chris in the next ten years, having a family of his own with a house and pet and everything. 

Gavin quietly spoke about how he felt like he didn’t have anything like that waiting for him. Not until he got his shit together and became the person he wanted to be. Though who knew how long that would take, becoming a detective and helping his city. He knew that things probably wouldn’t go his way. That everything was probably going to fall apart on him just because that was what things did with him. With a bitter laugh and rough voice, Gavin sat up and continued to talk about how things were starting to fall into place, but it would be a long time before anything got better for him. But the pieces were coming together and he was understanding where each one went as time went on. It would take a long time for him to get all of the pieces, he knew that. But Gavin had just the tiniest bit of hope in him still. Hope that everything would be okay one day. Even if it felt like it never would. 

  
  


“Sometimes I dream about her, you know.” Gavin forced out a laugh to fight back his tears. He made a point not to look at Chris. “Of everything being okay and her still being here. Eli and I being stupid brothers.”

“You miss her…” Chris’ voice was small. It sounded like his heart was somewhere far away, Gavin knew that he missed her too. “Listen, I was thinking of going to visit. Do you maybe wanna...come with me when I do?”

“Thanks for the offer, Chris. I appreciate it, I really do, but I can’t.” Gavin closed his eyes and sighed, slightly stiffening at the hand that was put on his shoulder. “Don’t talk about me, okay? Just tell her about what’s goin’ on with you.”

“Promise I won’t.” Chris stuck out his pinky, somehow with a completely serious face. Gavin wrapped his own around it with a shaky smile. “How about we order a pizza and watch trash tv until the ball drops?”

  
  


Gavin barked out a laugh and nodded to his friend. His old friend. Who had moved there in high school and hadn’t even been in a city beforehand. Chris, who was such a force of good in Gavin’s life that he never wanted to let go of. Of course he was going to let go of him if Chris wanted him to. It would be shitty of him not to. But for now, on New Year’s Eve, Gavin was going to cling to the goodness that was Chris Miller and how he kept his friend’s head above water. Gavin didn't know where he’d be without Chris and didn’t exactly like to think about it either. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that Chris was apparently ordering a pizza and standing up to go do his own thing.

  
  


\---

  
  


_ January 16th 2021 7:14 PM _

  
  


Time seemed to go on as normal. Or as normal as it was having Chris living with him. Gavin had to be up and out the door while it was still dark, and he usually didn’t get back home until after it had turned dark as well. But it was always delightful coming back home because of Chris. Usually he had some sort of music playing for one reason or another, and there would always be something waiting for Gavin on the stove or in the oven. What a godsend it was to be living with someone who worked in a kitchen. Tonight, however, there was a note left on the fridge. Gavin smirked to himself as he read it, Chris was on a date and had left the ingredients for whatever he would have cooked in the fridge. Though on the back of the note was another that said he knew Gavin wasn’t going to cook it so there was a small oven pizza for him in the freezer. 

Feeling much too tired to even fiddle with the oven, Gavin opted to grab some slices of bread and sit on the floor to eat it. He fucked around on his phone for the most part, even after he had his bread. Just stumbling through TikTok and unusual memes on reddit. Eventually, an hour later than when he had gotten home himself, the front door opened and Chris called out that he was home. He made his way into the kitchen, paying no mind to the heap of man on the floor that was Gavin Reed, and walked right back out once he had what he needed. That was how their relationship was these days. Gavin would sit in unusual places, Chris would walk around him. Sometimes Hank or Carl would stop by and they would comment on how Gavin was practically a cat. 

Though Gavin did eventually get up off the floor, slightly grimacing at the sounds his joints made when he stretched. Maybe he should stop doing that. But it wasn’t his fault that he got sucked into reddit and scrolled through the bullshit that was on the website. With a laugh, he went to go get ready for bed. He would have if he didn’t hear Chris suddenly swear in his own room. It was unusual to hear the man swear. He never did it, even when he got hurt or some shit. Which meant that something was going on. Gavin let himself into his housemate’s room only to see him with a headset on and playing some online game. For a minute he just stood in the doorway watching Chris play, before he realised he recognised the game. What should have been an early night for both of them, turned into a night of laughter and swears as Gavin taught Chris everything he knew about the game. 

Before they even knew it, Gavin’s watch beeped for four in the morning. It was when he usually woke up to start getting ready for the day. Which, of course, prompted him to let out a long groan and then force Chris to bed. Because of course they would have ended up staying up all night playing video games. 

  
  


“Dude, can’t you just call out?” Chris bundled up under his covers, bringing the blanket up around his shoulders. Gavin coughed into his hand to hide the little laugh he had. “You need to sleep.”

“Don't worry about me. You, however,” Gavin snickered and pointed at Chris. “Get some rest, tall child, you can’t keep burning the candle at both ends!”

“Quoting John Mulaney isn’t fair in this situation and you know it!”

  
  


Gavin laughed as Chris called out after him. Yeah sure, both of them were the tall child in the situation. But one tall child had to get in the shower and head over to the academy so he could learn and do shit. The other tall child had his first class at eleven in the morning. With a smirk and a flick of his wrist, Gavin turned on the shower and started quietly laughing to himself about various bits from John Mulaney shows. Because hey, they were honestly pretty relatable. 

  
  
  
  



	2. There's A Lot To See

_ September 19th 2021 2:00 PM _

  
  


Gavin stood at attention as Captain Fowler spoke to him. It was honestly rather...intimidating. His eyes darted around the office space, trying to take in everything he could so he could know what the captain liked. If he stayed on his good side, then he could get that much closer to his goal. There were various medals and some certificates on the walls and sitting on some cabinets. He could work with that information. It would take some time to prove his worth, but he would do it. He was going to work hard and change things for the better for his city. All he had to do was convince Captain Fowler that he was able to. 

Once dismissed from the captain's office, Gavin immediately made his way to Hank’s desk with a grin. He wasn’t there at the moment, something about being out on a case. But Gavin grabbed the notepad and wrote a little note saying that he was officially on the team and awaiting who his assigned partner would be. With a smile and satisfied nod, he walked out the front doors. The sunlight washed over his face comfortably as Gavin walked back to his car. Today was going to be a good day for him, he could feel it in his bones. He’d been having more of those lately, actually. More and more good days to balance out the bad ones. Maybe it was having Chris back in town, maybe it was the fact that he was getting one step closer to achieving his goal. Either way, Gavin felt that things were good. The weather was pretty nice. Mildly warm and comfortable enough to go for a short walk. 

Besides, it wasn’t like he could actually start to do shit until he had a uniform and a partner. So why not go for a walk on a sunny afternoon? Gavin strolled through the park, no real destination in mind, and looked around. There were friends and families hanging out in various places, couples walking along the pathways hand in hand, a few lonesome people such as himself. They were usually looking down at their phones or had some sort of headphones in, minding their own business and going about their days. Eventually, Gavin decided to settle on a bench. It was much easier to watch the world pass him by that way anyway. People watching, in his honest opinion, was one of the greatest things to ever do. To just be able to explore the world around him without any attachments. No connections to the people wandering the same place as he happened to be in. With a sigh and a slight hunch to his shoulders, Gavin’s eyes landed on a small family. 

They were happy. Two parents and two kids, having a blast and in their own little world. Completely and totally unaware of all of the bad things inevitably waiting for them in life. Gavin crossed his arms and watched the family for a little while longer, a distant sadness in his chest as was usual those days. They were happy. Two parents and two kids living their lives without a care in the world. With a sigh, Gavin pushed off of the bench and started to make his way back to his car. People watching just wasn’t as fun these days. Too many families came to the park on the weekend anyway. Not that they didn’t have a right to be there, it was a public park in the city that wasn’t a complete shithole. It was just that Gavin knew he wouldn’t be able to look around and see happy families. Not while his own was so terribly broken. 

It was no wonder his family had fallen apart, though. That kind of strain on a person’s spirit took no prisoners. It left no one wounded. It wreaked havoc like a storm and left behind only tattered remains of what once was in its wake. What happened between them...would never go away. Gavin hoped and prayed that things could go back to normal one day. That he and Elijah could just sit down and talk, like normal siblings did. Despite the chances of that happening being extremely low, Gavin found himself with a wistful smile on his face at the thought. Even as he entered a small coffee shop, the smile stayed. A pleasant tone in his voice while ordering his drink and playing some game on his phone while waiting for it. For whatever reason, the thought made him happy. It made him hopeful for the future. Despite the absurdity of the idea and how incredibly unlikely it was for the two of them to make up. What were they supposed to do? Go out for coffee and cry? Gavin let out a tiny little snort laugh to himself as he pried the lid off of his drink and watched the television in the corner of the dining area. 

  
  


_ “...where sources say that Elijah Kamski, the inventor who had created the first true android, had his creation pass the Turing test.” _

_ “...Mister Kamski, who was born and raised in our very own city of Detroit, went on to say that he wouldn’t have been able to achieve such greatness without the support from his family…” _

_ “...and at age nineteen, no less! This man has incredible genius and is going to change the world as we know it!” _

  
  


They were talking about Elijah… Using the last name Kamski as if he had never lived with Gavin and his mother in the first place. As if they had never taken him in and loved him more than anything. As if he never had a younger brother or mother who actually loved him. As if he had just sprung up out of the ground fully grown and made a life for himself just like that. Gavin dropped his head in his hands, resting his elbows on the table, and took a deep breath. One of the anchors had said something about Elijah mentioning his family. Though not once had he contacted Gavin since the incident with the robot. Sometimes the look in it’s eyes still haunted Gavin when he had a free moment to himself. How it looked utterly terrified and so strikingly human. That was the last time that Elijah had any contact with his family. At least...as far as Gavin’s side. 

What if he had gotten support from his family? From his biological parents, who Elijah hated with a passion as he got older. It was no secret that he thought they abandoned them. Which, Gavin bitterly mused to himself, was no thought; it was a fact that Mister and Missus Kamski had abandoned him as a child. They never even so much as called while the two of the boys were growing up. Elijah was abandoned. That was all there was to it. However, on the flipside, apparently their father loved Elijah more than anything. It wouldn’t have been too much of an abstract thought for one of the “anonymous donors” to have been their father. He was a very successful businessman, after all. There was the possibility that he wasn’t so anonymous as the public was led to believe and had asked Elijah to keep their relationship under wraps. 

When had things gotten so complicated? There was the possibility that Elijah had been in contact with a man he swore up and down that he hated with every fiber of his being. Even if their father had been in contact with him, Gavin knew for a goddamn fact that Elijah never would have spoken to his mother. That was something Gavin found some morbid comfort in. That even if Elijah was speaking with their father, there was no way he would even consider speaking with his mother. There was one person on earth that Elijah hated with a burning passion, and that was his mother. A twisted smirk formed on Gavin’s face as he stood up with his drink, throwing away the lid to his now cooling coffee. It was mean and selfish to want Elijah to be lonely and suffer for pushing everyone away. It was childish and bitter. Then again, Gavin didn’t get much of a chance to be a child because of the fact that their world started falling apart. So yeah, he’d let himself be childish and bitter and selfish. A mean little voice in the back of his head whispered that Elijah deserved it anyway. 

The mean little voice in the back of his head scared him. It had been turning him into someone he didn’t exactly care for. Gavin Reed was a kind and loving individual who had always wanted to help others and make sure they were okay. This Gavin Reed was bitter and angry at the world, he wanted the people who had wronged him to feel just as badly as he did so they understood what they did to him. That wasn’t who his mother raised him to be. That wasn’t the person Elijah grew up alongside. However, that was the easiest way to make sure nothing bad happened to him again. People wouldn’t be able to get close unless he allowed them to. Therefore the solution was easy; push them away so they don’t even have the option to leave. It was really a terrible way of going about life. No one should have it feel like that was the only way they could protect themselves from hurt in such a way. He knew it wasn’t a good thing to do. But to be quite honest, pushing people away had become his default response to human interaction. Though, as his phone started to ring with Hank’s ringtone, Gavin sighed and wondered why he even bothered lying to himself.

  
  


“Hey Hank, what’s up?”

“You leave me a note saying you’re gonna be workin’ here, and you answer the phone with ‘what’s up’?” Hank made a mildly aggravated sound on the other end of the line, and Gavin couldn’t help but laugh. “Kid, you’re gonna make me pop a fuckin’ blood vessel or something.”

“Sorry, I’m out right now so I can’t exactly scream and jump around like a middle school girl getting good news.” Gavin’s eyes flicked toward some people crossing the street and he wondered how many of them had received good news recently. “Besides, I can’t do shit to celebrate. I can’t drink yet.”

“Err-- Well-- Gavin, you can’t, uhh,  _ legally _ drink yet.”

“Lieutenant Anderson!” Gavin gasped and put a hand to his chest in mock horror, despite the fact that Hank couldn’t see it. “Are you suggesting that I engage in  _ underage drinking _ ?”

“You know I can’t tell you to do that!” Hank huffed on the other end of the call. Gavin could hear someone ask for him in the background. “I gotta go, but Gavin, I’m saying that one drink at home while supervised shouldn’t be too bad.”

“Alright old man,” Gavin chuckled at the incredulous sound his friend made and continued. “Tonight at the house whenever you got outta work?”

“Sure thing, kiddo.”

  
  


Gavin looked down at his phone in wonderment as Hank hung up the call. Huh, so the Lieutenant was somewhat encouraging the fresh new beat cop to drink while he was underage. A grin spread over Gavin’s face as he sipped at his coffee and walked down the street. How fuckin’ wild was that?! Hank Anderson, Lieutenant at twenty-six because of a giant Red Ice bust gone perfect, was telling an underage individual that it was okay to drink alcohol! Well, all the fun would be taken out of it because it was only one and it would be supervised. But that didn’t mean that it wasn’t exciting to think about! Gavin never had the chance to go sneaking around behind the backs of adults and party with his friends. He never had the time, nor the friends if he was being honest with himself, because of everything that was going on. But tonight! Oh, tonight was going to be fun. Gavin was going to hang out with his friends and they were going to celebrate the good things in their lives. 

There would be no speaking of bad things. There was going to be no mention of Chris losing credits that wouldn’t transfer to the school he was going to, there was going to be no mention of Elijah and his success. Tonight there would only be good things. Laughter and smiles shared among friends and family, celebrating the fact that there were still good things that could happen to them. Small reminders that life wasn’t completely terrible so long as you spent it with the right people. Gavin climbed into his car once he got to it and cranked up the radio without a care. 90’s and 2000’s pop started playing, and Gavin decided that today was good actually. There was one bad thing in the middle, but it was small in retrospect. It wasn’t like anything big was going to happen with the robot anytime soon. Patents took time. 

Gavin was counting on that.

  
  
  
  



	3. If You Keep 'em Closed

_ September 19th 2021 6:22 PM _

  
  


Honestly, the amount of giddy Gavin was should have concerned him. As well was the fact that he was actually  _ cleaning _ before Hank was meant to stop by. But today was the first really, genuinely good day he had in...fuck he didn’t even know how long it was. Probably in a few months. But he also would take any chance he could get to blast some  _ Studio Killers, _ so it wasn’t really all that bad. Good music, good mood, good news; all of that meant it was a good day. Gavin was convinced that nothing could bring him down. Thus he was cleaning and humming along to the music. Completely oblivious as Chris walked through the front door, stopped and chuckled under his breath at his housemate, and then went on his way to do his own thing. It wasn’t until after Gavin heard some clattering of dishes in the kitchen that he paused and went to go investigate. 

  
  


“Hey man, thought you were in your own world there,” Chris smiled and grabbed some stuff from the fridge. “What’s the special occasion? Got a guy comin’ over?”

“If by ‘guy’ you mean my new coworker, then abso-fucking-lutely.” Gavin smirked when Chris dropped a wooden spoon on the floor. “I got the job! We’re celebrating tonight!”

“Wait, wait, hold on. Is it Hank? You’re inviting over Hank?” The sigh Chris gave came from deep within his soul when Gavin nodded. “Dude, isn’t he practically your boss?”

“He’s also like the weird uncle who gives you something and says not to tell your parents.” Gavin gathered a few things to help Chris with dinner, bumping his shoulder against his friend’s with a laugh. “Besides, him and I have work tomorrow, so we’re not gonna do anything stupid.”

  
  


The look Chris gave him could have killed, but in the end he relented and listened to Gavin as he recounted his day. Going to the precinct and speaking with Captain Fowler and how nerve-wracking it was, getting his coffee and seeing something about Elijah on the television, people watching in the park yet again. Chris listened intently as he always did. It was a normal night for the two of them, cooking and talking. Chris continued the conversation by talking about his day. They had some sort of test for him, placement apparently, considering the fact that he already had taken a semester of the course back at the other school. He was waiting to be placed in a class currently, not really paying attention to what was going on in his introductory class because of that fact. He already knew the starting material anyway so he didn’t think it really mattered. 

About halfway through his rant of how bullshit it was to lose credits for the exact same class, a knock on the door interrupted him. Gavin, ever the excitable person he was when he was actually happy, threw down the shredded cheese on the counter and ran over to the door to throw it open. On the other side of the door was a casually dressed Hank holding a few generic bottles of beer in a plastic bag. The two chatted for a minute or two and Gavin introduced him to Chris. They seemed to get along like a house on fire, considering the fact that the thing they instantly bonded over was poking fun at Gavin. The first thing Gavin actually heard Hank laugh about was hearing Chris say something about how Gavin had just thrown down the bag of shredded cheese to get to the door. Listen, it wasn’t his fault that he was excitable. It also wasn’t his fault if some of the cheese went missing while he and Chris were talking. Sometimes a person just had to shovel handfuls of shredded cheese into their mouth, Chris didn’t know that about people. 

The three of them got to talking once Chris stuck the dish in the oven. It was...remarkable that the two of them happened to get along. Usually the people Gavin liked hated each other. Or maybe that was just what happened for him in middle school; he stopped trying to mix groups of friends after that. But this was something different, he was convinced. Everyone involved was an adult this time around and mostly had their lives in order. Gavin being the almost. Hank was stable in his profession and was honestly probably looking at being a Captain in the next couple years. Chris had his life mapped out in front of him with school and the work he wanted to do. Gavin though… He was still stumbling through life like a child, still unsure of the world around him and trying to figure out what he wanted. But this made it a lot easier to wander through it, at least. Having two friends that had become somewhat of his family over the years by his side. 

After a beat of thinking and trying to figure out just what the hell was going on in his brain, Gavin smiled and suggested that the three of them sit at the table for a while. At least until dinner was done. Once sitting, Hank twisted off the caps to the beers he had brought and handed one to each of the boys. Chris seemed put off by it, but slowly took it regardless. Hank assured him he didn’t have to drink it if he didn’t have to, but he was willing to stick around and supervise to make the two feel more at ease. Which honestly did calm Gavin’s nerves a bit. It was absurd to be nervous about drinking. Most kids in his school had gotten hangovers regularly by the time they were sixteen. It was Detroit, can’t have shit in Detroit. But Gavin took the glass bottle from Hank with a shaky smile and a nervous mumble of thanks.

After a little while of sipping at it, and of chatting while eating, Gavin found that he felt a little lighter. A little more smiley. He knew that meant he was getting tipsy in the very least, but he couldn't exactly bring himself to care. So in his slightly inebriated state of mind, he started bugging Hank. Who only laughed and gave him a warm smile as an answer to every one of his pestering questions. At least until it got to the precinct and Gavin started to notice - but not really care about - the faces Hank was making at each of the questions. In his mind, Gavin thought that they weren't that bad. He was just asking about office gossip and partnerships. He wanted to know who he was a contender for. Wanted to know if there was any possibility that he would end up being assigned to Hank. Eventually, the lieutenant sighed and shook his head with a smile.

  
  


“Okay, I’ll give in,” Hank squinted and pointed at Gavin. “But only because we’re celebrating tonight.”

“Oh hell yeah! Alright, so,” Gavin adjusted how he sat and grinned, slightly bouncing in his excitement. “Is there any way that I could be our partner? Or somethin’ like that?”

“Shit, that’s what you wanted to know?” Hank laughed and leaned back. “Probably not, kid. I’ve known you for too long, I’d be considered emotionally compromised. Some of the younger officers might take ya though,” Hank mumbled from behind the glass bottle. “God bless them if they do.”

  
  


Hank let out a genuine guffaw at Gavin’s squeaky sound of protest. Listen, he knew he could be a handful, but he wasn’t always such a little shit! Only to people that he really cared about! But he kept relatively quiet as Chris and Hank began talking again, listening in as they exchanged dumb stories about the up and coming rookie. Chris snickered out descriptions of memories; sleepovers, school dances, hanging out and getting stoned in his room while his parents weren’t home. The last one made Hank laugh so hard that he stopped making noise. He then recalled a time where he had done the exact same thing with a few of his buddies in high school. It made Chris relax more in his seat. Gavin had no doubt it was because of the relatability. Hank was a stupid teenager once, too, he knew what kids got up to. Mostly. He was still jokingly called old by Gavin any chance the latter could get. 

  
  


“So what’re you doin’ with Gavin?” Hank snickered when Gavin gently smacked him in the arm. “You’ve probably got a good head on your shoulders, so what’re you doin’ with him?”

“I’m going to school right now, actually. He just had a place where I can crash.”

“Aw, is that all I’m good for, Chris?” Gavin grinned at his friend and then addressed Hank. “He’s here because his parents kicked him out for losing credits when he transferred schools.”

“Gavin!” Chris reached over the table to smack him in the chest, causing him to make an ungodly  _ doof! _ noise. “They didn’t kick me out! You invited me to stay with you!”

“Yeah,” A snicker could be heard from Hank in the background. “After they kicked you out because you lost credits from your first semester.”

  
  


The three of them dissolved into a mess of laughter and Chris and Gavin trying to get at each other. It was...simple and easy. It was something Gavin didn’t expect to enjoy. Chris trying his best to make fun of Gavin while he was sitting right there. In front of a coworker that could be considered his boss, no less. Though regardless of it, they had a good time. Chris told stories about Gavin when they were in high school. Hank nodded along as if he had no idea what Chris was talking about, when he was the one who had to drive the two of them home on multiple occasions because of loitering in the first place. It didn’t surprise Gavin that Chris didn’t remember. It only happened - oh god, he couldn’t really remember himself - probably about five times. Gavin always gave Chris the option of doing his own thing instead of hanging out at the gas station for no good reason. 

Though it seemed that Hank didn’t exactly remember either. It was no surprise that he remembered Gavin, with how many times he had brought him home. That was how Hank had become friends with his mother. That was how he got roped into their family in the first place. Gavin watched Hank and Chris talk with an almost wistful smile on his face, reminiscing about his past in his head without a care. His life sucked, sure, but he had some pretty good friends still. Yeah one of them was a lieutenant, another was an older painter, and another was the random kid who had moved to the city when they were about fourteen. But they were still his friends. As much as they could be, at least. Gavin had never been good with people. Neither had Elijah, honestly, that was part of what brought them together in the first place. But these people? They were his. They were his even as Hank got his attention by asking a question Gavin already knew the answer to. 

  
  


“Actually, Chris, I’ve got a question for ya.” Hank set his glass down and eyed him curiously. “What were you goin’ to school for?”

“Oh, criminal justice and forensic psychology. It’s gonna take a really long time, but it’s something I really wanna do.” Chris smiled and gently shoved Gavin by his shoulder. “This guy’s hero complex rubbed off on me while we were in school.”

“Hey! It’s not a complex! I just like helping people, smartass!” Gavin gently shoved him back and laughed. “Besides, you don’t have the guts to get out there in the field and get dirty every once in a while.”

“Gavin, I’m going to school for forensics.” 

“Forensic  _ psychology. _ ” Gavin said very matter of factly, even nodding once. “Not the same thing as bodies and maggots and murder weapons.”

  
  


Things were...good. As Hank and Chris laughed, as Gavin felt himself blush from the sudden amusement they took from his statement, as the night seemed to drag on in a good way. But he found himself smiling, genuinely, as Hank complimented Chris on his choice of a path in life. At the joke that they could use someone with his sort of mentality in the future. Hank winked at the young man with a smile, saying that he would always give Captain Fowler a good word on him if he ever chose to pursue a career in the profession. Gavin smiled to himself at that. Hank had done that exact same thing for him not even a week ago. For now, Gavin’s life was good. It would inevitably get bad again, that was how things worked for him. But for now he was going to enjoy this lull in his life and relax with two friends that had become family to him.

  
  
  
  



	4. You're Missing Out On What Life Really Means

_ December 5th 2021 9:09 AM _

  
  


Rolling over in bed, Gavin listened as Chris went about his morning routine before heading out the door for his work. The holidays were officially underway and he was  _ not _ having it. Well, they technically already had been for a week or so. But that was beside the point. The point was that Gavin wasn’t a fan of holidays anymore; they usually involved family gatherings and that was something he couldn’t exactly have anymore. Not entirely at least, he could always invite over Carl and Hank, and he and Chris could cook something. But that was about it when it came to Gavin’s family. The ones who wanted to associate with him at least. The holidays were going to be rather...trying that year. There was inevitably going to be snow, because why wouldn’t the universe want to spite Gavin. Not to mention the fact that Hank wanted to have him, Chris, and Carl over for dinner on the actual holiday. Which meant that there would be no way for Gavin to avoid social interaction. 

Once the front door opened and closed, signalling Chris had left for his part-time job, Gavin finally got up and out of bed. It wasn’t like he was avoiding the man. But he was absolutely avoiding the man. Chris and Gavin had known each other for a long time at this point, having met in high school and Gavin immediately decided he was going to befriend the new weirdly quiet kid from a literal village. As Gavin stretched and somewhat stumbled out of his room, he reflected on their friendship. He had always loved Chris to bits. Despite the fact that he seemed to be more popular, Chris never chose to hang out with the popular kids. Aside from his girlfriend, because they were practically inseparable when they found each other between classes. But he was a good guy back then. He was a good guy now. For fuck’s sake he was going to school so he could go out in the world and help people. It was incredibly admirable, as well as very time consuming. It was no secret that when Chris really put his mind to something, he was going to see it through to the end. Gavin looked up to him for that. 

A faint buzz from the counter pulled Gavin out of his thoughts. It was a text from Hank, reminding him of the imminent holiday. As well as a half-hearted threat that if Hank wasn’t given a suggestion as to what Gavin would like as a gift, he was going to shove a few reptiles into an enclosure and send the creatures over Gavin’s way. Which would have worked as a threat if Gavin wasn’t seriously considering getting a pet in the near future. As long as Hank didn’t stick a goddamn tarantula into an enclosure and give it to him, everything would be fine. As long as he didn’t pull an Elijah and make a tiny robot that looked like a spider and made it follow Gavin around, recording his first few reactions to seeing the thing coming at him. A shudder worked its way through Gavin as he recalled the event. It was fucking horrifying seeing a mechanical spider suddenly zip across the living room and come right for his feet. Absolutely fucking not, no thank you. He had to have jumped a foot in the air and shrieked like a small child when deliberately scared. 

Yeah, sure, okay. Gavin yawned and texted Hank back. He’d make sure that Chris wasn’t busy, and neither was his girlfriend, so they could go over to his place for Christmas dinner. Then after a brief pause he added on that he liked fuzzy slipper socks with the little grippies on the bottom, his favourite were the ones with funky patterns on them. The weirder the better. Gavin didn’t get an immediate reply from Hank, but rather a picture. A screenshot of what was some website that had some fun cat head slipper socks. Gavin sent Hank a single thumbs up emoji before locking his phone and setting it up on the charger. Christmas was going to be hell. But it was going to be an enjoyable hell with his family around him at least.

  
  


\---

  
  


_ February 14th 2022 3:14 PM _

  
  


Gavin huffed in the cold afternoon air and shoved his hands in his pockets. He had started to hate roses recently. All that love and mushy shit. Yeah no, he’d pass on all of that. He was never one for romance, and he certainly didn’t suddenly become accustomed to it in the last few years. Honestly, the most romantic things happening around him at the moment were Chris taking his girlfriend out to dinner and Hank having taken his wife for a weekend getaway. Gavin was happy for them for being so content and in love with someone. A part of him just wished that Chris and Hank would shut up about their love lives though. Sure, yeah, Hank had his wife and she was a really nice lady when Gavin met her. Plus Chris’ girlfriend practically seemed to be his soulmate, so there was no getting around how dopey Chris would get when she was even mentioned. But the fact that the two of them had someone made a little heat burn in Gavin’s chest. Though, being the stubborn bastard he was, he ignored it. He wasn’t jealous of his coworker and best friend. There was no way. 

But when he saw Hank smile and quietly say he loved the person on the other end of the phone, Gavin couldn’t help but snort. Here was big bad Lieutenant Hank Anderson. Quietly and nervously saying he loved his wife. If Gavin had a partner he’d shout his love for them from the top of his lungs on rooftops across the city. The sudden realisation of such a thing made his eyes widen as he grabbed his drink to busy himself. Hank didn’t need to know what was going on inside of his head right now, not on their lunch break. So when Hank stuffed his phone back in his pocket and picked up his sandwich, Gavin decided to gently tease the man for being all awkward about saying he loved his wife. That always made things a lot easier to handle. Turning the things that made him uncomfortable into jokes. Probably not a great coping mechanism, but no one needed to know. No one could know, actually. Everybody thought he was funny. Therefore everyone thought he was normal. That was better. 

Memories practically played on loop in the back of his mind as he and Hank chatted. Apparently they went to a cute little zoo on their weekend getaway, and his wife wouldn’t stop talking about the sharks. A smile formed on Gavin’s face despite his brain’s protests. He could remember a time when his mother brought him and Elijah to the zoo when they were little. Before certain animals went extinct and the world started going to shit. Gavin could remember the laughter, the warm summer air, the fried dough Elijah was so insistent on getting on their way out. Gavin looked down at the table in front of him, down to the ham and cheese he had gotten himself, and he suddenly missed the fried dough. He missed the fun adventures he and Elijah had that day. With a bitter smile, Gavin stood up and told Hank he forgot he still needed to finish a report. Their work was never done. Especially not in a city like Detroit. Hank didn’t make Lieutenant for no reason, he knew something was wrong. But he just smiled and told Gavin he needed to take a break every once in a while. 

Gavin promised he would. Just as soon as he got that report done, he’d go outside for a little bit and breathe in the shitty city air. Hank laughed at the jab at their city and waved him off. It was good to have a friend. What wasn’t was the looming fact that said friend was married and having the time of his life being like a secretive teenager tip-toeing around the house of their crush. Chris had already been like that for a week and a half. He and Helena had been sneaking around the cottage, in the middle of the afternoon, not even doing anything. Gavin smirked a little as he hailed a taxi and told the driver where they needed to go. It would be one thing if the two of them were sneaking around to do stuff. It was another to be sneaking around just for the hell of it. But that was love, he supposed. Love was...weird and hard to understand. That was what his mother always said. Gavin smiled as he looked out the window. When he was little, he always gave her a valentine, he always said that she was his valentine. The same could be said for Elijah once he came into their lives. He’d give his brother a valentine; say that since they were brothers and best friends, they were valentines. 

With a sigh, Gavin paid the driver and stepped out of the taxi to walk into the building. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, he was going to go to work and help catch a killer. Well, he wanted to at least. Right now he had to make a report on a very strange sounding smash and grab. For whatever reason, somebody stole another person’s goddamn porch. It was mind boggling to him. Not even the why, though that did make the gears turn in his head furiously. But the how of it. How in the hell did someone manage to steal a person’s porch? Right in front of their front door. With a little laugh and a shake of his head, Gavin sat down at his terminal and booted up his computer. Somebody stole another person’s porch, you really can’t have shit in Detroit. 

  
  


\---

  
  


_ July 17th 2022 5:03 AM _

  
  


The light coming from Gavin’s phone threatened to blind him in the near darkness. He knew Elijah would have been awake. He was always up really late on the day before his birthday, he always said some shit about watching the clock strike midnight being enough for him. Gavin never understood it. He always loved his own birthday, he was always looking forward to it as a kid. Elijah was the exact opposite, really. He loathed his birthday. Every time it would roll around, Gavin would get him something silly and goofy. Though he would refuse a present from Chris or any of their other school friends. So, that brought Gavin back around to his current train of thought. If Elijah had reacted oddly to Gavin giving him gifts when they were younger because he hated his birthday, then what would make a phone call any different this year? What was stopping Elijah from just blocking Gavin’s number and leaving it at that?

The answer was nothing. There was absolutely nothing keeping him from doing exactly that. The thought made Gavin frown and lock his phone and set it face-down on his nightstand. Though even with locking it, even it turning the screen away, even with distancing himself from it; Gavin couldn’t help it when his eyes landed back on the device as soon as he properly laid down for bed. It was way too early to be awake. It was way too late to be awake. Gavin, realistically, should have been sound asleep. He shouldn’t have been looking at his phone like someone looked at a friend they so desperately wanted to speak with after a long day. Despite himself, Gavin sat back up quickly and snatched his phone off the table. It was just the same as it had been before. Still a hunk of plastic and metal pieces that worked so intricately that he could never hope to understand it in any way. But Elijah would be able to take it apart and put it back together. 

Gavin unlocked his phone and opened up his contacts. It was right there, and it was so incredibly easy to just...tap on Elijah’s name. It was too easy to give in at five in the morning in such a sleep deprived state. Though Gavin found himself hesitating, he couldn’t do it. His thumb hovered over the screen long enough that his eyes had somewhat unfocused and the screen went a little darker at the disuse. Yet his thumb tapped down on Elijah’s name just before the screen could go dark. Another screen came up, and Gavin instinctively held his breath as he held the device up to his ear to listen. One, two, three; four rings until a very gravelly sounding Elijah decided to mumble a hello into the phone. Gavin froze, letting out a small disbelieving breath into the receiver, and said nothing. Elijah sounded a little more awake the second time he said hello, as well as a little more wary. No, no, he couldn’t hang up. Not yet. He couldn’t hang up yet. 

  
  


“If you don’t say anything,” Elijah took a commanding tone, Gavin didn’t like how it sounded. It didn’t fit him. “I’m going to hang up and send the police your phone number.”

  
  


Gavin mentally screamed at himself to say something,  _ anything, _ to his brother. A simple hello, a quick hope that he was doing well, a short breathy laugh would have even been enough for Elijah to know who it was that was calling. Seeing as he had apparently deleted Gavin’s contact from his phone. That...wasn’t too off-brand for him, actually. Despite the circumstances, it brought a smile to Gavin’s face. He took a shaky breath and spoke softly into his phone. 

  
  


“Happy birthday, Eli.”

“Gav, I--”

  
  


Gavin quickly hung up the phone and tossed it onto the other side of his bed, watching as it bounced and tumbled to the floor. He’d pick it up once he actually got out of bed. He had just about another hour until his alarm went off. Albeit, it would go off from the floor considering it was from an app on his phone. Gavin huddled up under his blankets again anyway. 

He pointedly ignored the soft music that was Elijah’s ringtone coming from the floor.

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because of this godforsaken game, I think the stupid "can't have shit in Detroit" meme is really funny, so here you go:


	5. Empty Out My Pockets And You'll Know Just What I'm Worth

_ November 5th 2022 8:36 PM _

  
  


Eli did it. As was evident by the fact that currently, while standing in his living room with the remote in his fist resting on his hip, Gavin saw his brother’s face on the television screen. Elijah with his glasses and hair tied up in a ponytail and a wide grin on his face. He was excitedly gesturing to the goddamn robot, saying something with letters and numbers. Also that it was going to be available for commercial purchase on December first. Gavin took in a shallow breath, squeezing his eyes shut and absently finding the button to turn the television off. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t any fucking fair. For Elijah to just up and decide to make thousands upon thousands of copies of the damn robot. It wasn’t fair for Elijah to just decide that he wanted to change the world, that he was going to make sure that Gavin never got any fucking peace. That he would always be haunted by the face that resembled their mother’s so closely, but was just slightly off. 

With an angered yell, he opened his eyes and hurled the remote at the screen, fracturing and splintering the delicate piece of machinery. Shards of it littered the carpet and a pained noise escaped from Gavin’s throat as he stared down at the pieces. It wasn’t going to make a difference. There was nothing that Gavin could do about any of it. Elijah owned a company. Chances were that they had swayed him into making a profit, not just trying to better the world. Even if that was what he always wanted to do. He would always marvel at Gavin with such an awe-inspired smile, remarking that he may have been the older one but he still looked up to Gavin. With the light from that damn flashlight shining down on a textbook reflecting off of the white pages and onto their faces, sometimes up until the sun decided to rise. From some of the countless nights they spent awake with one another, quietly laughing and speaking about the future and who they wanted to become. 

Look at who Gavin had become now. 

A bitter twenty year old man who had thrown the remote at the television and broken it. With his current salary, and Chris using his solely to pay off his tuition and contribute to rent, there wasn’t going to be another one in the room for a little while. Gavin ran a hand through his hair and then gently rubbed his fingertips against the scar tissue on his nose. He always wanted to be there for his family. For their achievements and their downfalls. He wanted to be there for Elijah and his mother, and yet he wasn’t there for either of them when they needed him. He wasn’t there when his mother died. He wasn’t there when Elijah started to spiral deeper and deeper into denial. Now look at where he was. Standing in the middle of his living room, tears seemingly pouring from his eyes, and just...staring at yet another mistake he had made. Though it wasn’t like he wasn’t used to making mistakes at that point in his life. In fact, he seemed to be full of bad decisions and shitty stakes. 

It didn’t fucking matter anymore. None of it did. Not to Gavin. 

Maybe if he told himself that enough times, he’d start to believe it. 

  
  


\---

  
  


_ January 31st 2023 1:53 PM _

  
  


Cracking his knuckles, Gavin grinned at Hank and then squatted down next to the body. There was suspicion of the family robot apparently. Which, Gavin smirked bitterly to himself, was just fucking absurd. But the kid who called the cops swore up and down that they had seen the damn thing holding a knife above it’s head and then watched it as it swung down at the victim while she was screaming. Gavin put it up to a hacker, apparently the deceased had an ex who had a little bit of a track record. It wasn’t anything that he couldn’t handle, of course. He was brand new and planned on making a difference. There was nothing Gavin couldn’t take head-on and find a way to fix. Family robot or no family robot. Honestly, he was pretty glad the damn thing wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He wasn’t sure how well he’d be able to handle the scrap of plastic. 

Gavin pushed himself back up into a standing position with a soft grunt and then proceeded to explain just what he thought had happened to Hank. Hacker ex quite obviously had to have done something to the pile of plastic and wires, found a way to remotely control it, and sent it after the victim in a deranged form of revenge. Hank nodded along, arms crossed, and then pointed to the body. With a flat voice he asked where the evidence was. They couldn’t just go off of a hunch from the get-go. They needed actual evidence they could see, anything else was just suspicion and theory. Neither of which would hold up in an actual investigation. Well, time to interview a few neighbours, then. Gavin smiled at Hank, giving him a wink and saying that he was going to handle the neighbours. He was young and pretty. They would open up to him easier than a grizzled old man. With a laugh and flip of the bird, Hank grinned and told him to get his ass outta there and get to interviewing the poor people who would be at Gavin’s mercy. 

It wasn’t much to go off of and Gavin knew that. But they had enough for probable cause already. The ex could fall into the jaded ex-lover category pretty easily. They violated a restraining order the deceased had filed against them up to seven different times over the years, constantly claiming that they had been in the wrong and only wanted to make things right so they could both move on. It wasn’t much at all, but it was just enough to start looking for suspects. With a soft huff, and pausing for a fraction of a second to admire the puff of vapor in his face in the frigid temperatures, Gavin knocked on the first neighbour’s door. An elderly man with tired eyes had answered the door, taking immediate notice of the uniform Gavin wore and nodded to himself while opening the door up a little bit more, saying it was much too cold for such a young man to stay out on the front steps. Next thing Gavin knew, he was being handed a nice and warm mug of hot chocolate by another elderly man. The interview went well in Gavin’s mind. Recording the encounter and snickering to himself whenever the old couple would start bickering every now and again. With a smile and a wave, the elderly men sent him on his way with some still toasty slices of fresh bread.

That was weird, but who was Gavin to judge? It was the middle of the afternoon and so what if two elderly folks decided to have bread making as a hobby. He shoved the bread into the breast pocket of his shirt and knocked on the next door. Regardless of the car being in the driveway and sounds being clear as day inside, no one came to answer the door. He tried a few more times before pulling out a small notebook and writing down the address and moving on to the next house. This was going to take a long fucking time. But he was young and spry! Gavin was determined to make this work, he was going to help fix this and help settle the city just a bit. Detroit had no shortage of things that needed to be fixed, and he had no shortage of how much he wanted to help. It was a match made in heaven. Some day he’d be Detective Gavin Reed, and he’d be helping his city with a goddamn smile on his face. All he had it do was get through an investigation that involved one of those stupid fucking Barbies. So Gavin put a pleasant smile on his face and started up going door to door again. Because he was going to help his city. He was going to catch that woman’s killer.

  
  


\---

  
  


_ February 10th 2023 8:12 PM _

  
  


“Gavin,” Hank’s voice snapped Gavin out of his mild daydream of having a grey tuxedo cat. “You gotta go home, son. C’mon, get up.”

“I’m  _ this close _ to finally getting the damn suspect, Hank. I can’t give up now.”

“And I’m  _ this close, _ ” Hank pinched his thumb and forefinger together until they were just barely not touching each other. “To dragging you outta that fuckin’ chair myself.”

“Just give me another hour--”

“You’re not going to help anyone like this, Gavin.” Hank looked down at Gavin with a slight frown on his face, certain wrinkles deepening with the expression. Gavin wondered if he’d look like that any time soon. “Go home and get some sleep. You’ll be able to do more for that girl if you do.”

  
  


Gavin nodded sleepily and started to gather his things. Honestly, he wasn’t sure how he hadn’t passed out earlier. Y’know. Despite the fact that he had at least three cups of disgusting black coffee running through his bloodstream. But hey, he wasn’t there to be comfortable. He was there to make sure the killer of that girl was a human. That it wasn’t the damn family robot that Elijah had made. There was no way the damn thing went Terminator and decided to suddenly kill it’s owner. There was no fuckign way, that wasn’t possible. Gavin may not have understood anything about robotics, but he knew the laws of it. Robots couldn’t bring harm to a human. That was the big one that was enforced at virtually all costs, or it supposedly was. He genuinely wouldn’t put it past Elijah to have some sort of code floating around in the background. If the initial robot he made was able to emulate humanity so closely, then who was to say that the other ones that were mass produced weren’t able to?

As Gavin bid Hank goodnight and climbed into his car, he wondered just what it could have meant if the family robot actually did kill the victim. If robots were ignoring the very laws of robotics… Then the world as they knew it would end. Which meant that the suspect had to be the jaded ex-lover, there was no way it couldn’t have been. Lack of evidence at the scene be damned. So what if there were no fingerprints? That meant the killer had gloves. So what if there were no signs of forced entry? Locks were starting to get into the digital area, so it must have been hacked. So what if there was no DNA under the victim’s nails? The killer must have been wearing clothing that covered their skin, maybe even a mask. It had to be a human who committed the murder. If it wasn’t… If it wasn’t, then no one would be able to convict the damn robot of anything. It was property, it was a toy for people who could afford to throw money around like that. So in order for the victim to get justice, the killer had to be human. Memories of Elijah’s robot crying as it fell to it’s knees be damned. 

Upon arriving home and walking through the door, Gavin noticed the house was almost aglow. Chris stood in the kitchen humming to himself as he cooked. That was something normal that Gavin could wrap his head around at least. So with a tired grin, he shucked off his jacket and shoes before washing his hands and helping his friend. The usual banter of old friends was entirely welcomed for Gavin, making him nearly forget about the migraine inducing case he had been dragged into. For an hour or so he was able to forget. He was able to fully relax and just...be the part of himself that he missed the most. The shitty young adult that was still stumbling through life not because of trauma and a lack of teaching, but because he was just young and dumb still. It felt good to be on a level playing field with his peers once again. It hadn’t been that way since he was in high school. Things felt normal, things felt like they would be okay so long as he applied himself and tried his best. Even if he had the sneaking suspicion that they wouldn’t turn out that way. 

  
  


\---

  
  


_ March 18th 2023 11:41 AM _

  
  


His case was officially considered cold. With no actual evidence to tie the jaded ex-lover to the scene of the crime, Gavin had to let the person go. It had taken quite a bit of convincing from Hank not to go into Fowler’s office and demand to keep the case open. To continue to pursue the ex instead of just letting it run cold. Gavin reluctantly listened to Hank, crossing his arms with a huff as he watched the ex walk out of the bullpen and into the lobby. It had to be the ex, there was no way it couldn’t have been. It had to be the ex. Because if it was the robot, then… Gavin didn’t know what would happen if it had been the robot. What it could mean for the city. And as much as he hated to admit it; that fact scared him. 

  
  
  
  



	6. I'm A Person That Feels Everything

_ December 24th 2023 12:18 PM _

  
  


Captain Fowler gave him the holiday off. Saying some shit about being young and needing to go out and do fun things with his friends before the holiday. At the time, Gavin thanked him and said he’d be sure to relax for a while. Now though? Lounging on his loveseat with his phone propped up on his leg watching some mindless true scary story video; Gavin was actually glad he had the time off for once. Chris was with his parents for the holiday. Which, Gavin smiled to himself as he listened to the narrator, meant that he had the house to himself for the first time in a long time. Which also meant that he didn’t need to abide by any goofy holiday traditions. Though he did abide by one, his mother had started it. 

Gavin got up and set his phone on the coffee table before settling down on the floor in front of the tree. All aglow with colourful blinking lights and fun ornaments resting in the fake branches. Chris wasn’t home so now would be the perfect time to actually do it, considering it was something special and personal for Gavin. But it wouldn’t be any fun unless the event was shared with someone. Standing up with a soft groan, he decided it would probably be a lot easier to unpack how everything made him feel while in the shower. He washed his hair the day before, so he could just go in and stand under the water for a while… Wash his face or some shit maybe. Thus he shuffled off to the bathroom, flicking the switch for the fan and then turning on the showerhead. 

As he stepped into the warm spray of water, Gavin had a thought. Maybe he should have gotten Elijah a gift or something. It probably would have been nice of him to do, considering that they were brothers. But family didn’t have to be family if a person didn’t want them to be. Just like Elijah had cut out their biological father from his life, Gavin could cut out Elijah. Though the question was if he even wanted to. The angry part of him hissed out that he did, Elijah hurt him irreparably and thus Gavin wanted him to know the same hurt. The scared boy that just wanted to surround himself with the people he loved so he knew they were safe told him not to do it, if anything ever happened to Elijah and Gavin wasn’t there he would blame himself. There laid the problem. Gavin was too goddamn hurt to want to let Elijah go, even if it was for his own good. He was too stubborn to let his brother get the last word in. He needed to be the one who left. He needed to be the one who finally cut ties and live his own life. 

Gavin sighed and ran his hands through his hair, absentmindedly reaching for the shampoo and putting some in his hand on autopilot. Neither of those were really fair to Elijah in the end, though. But who cared? He was the one who pulled away first. He was the one who made the first step back. Elijah started it. So it only seemed fair that Gavin finished it. After all, he mused bitterly, they always used to say they were two halves of a whole. By the time Gavin had even realised what he was doing, he was already in the process of rinsing the shampoo out of his hair. Eh, fuck it. It wasn’t gonna kill him to wash his hair two days in a row so long as he didn’t do it again tomorrow. He wasn’t as particular about Elijah was about his appearance. Hell, he had been all uptight about it since they were kids. The memories made Gavin smiled before he caught himself. No. That Elijah was gone. That was Elijah  _ Reed, _ and apparently now he was Elijah  _ Kamski. _

With a little bit of disgruntled mumbling to himself, Gavin followed his usual showering routine and decided to stay under the hot water for a little while longer. Just a little bit. Just to stay in the warmth of it and what it provided for him. Gavin distantly recalled that taking long and hot showers was a sign that someone was touch-starved or something. Or that it was a sign that they didn’t have enough physical interaction with other people in the very least. He wondered which it was for him, because both could have been true. Jesus, the last time he willingly hugged someone was years ago. It was back in 2020, and it was Carl. Maybe he  _ was _ touch starved. But he also didn’t trust anyone enough to get anywhere near him in a meaningful way, let alone to do something as intimate as hugging or laying with one another. It would be a cold day in Hell before Gavin Reed let someone in like that. 

  
  


\---

  
  


_ January 3rd 2024 9:49 PM _

  
  


It had been a long day for both Gavin and Chris. Classes were stacked on top of one another for Chris, seeing as his placement was set in stone now and he had to play catch-up in what he had initially missed. On top of having to go cover someone else’s shift at the restaurant after four of his classes. Honestly, Gavin had a trying day. But he still felt something like sympathy for his dear friend. Having to go from sitting around in lecture halls all day, listening to professors drone on and on about things that he already knew a great deal about; then after all of that having to go listen to people shouting over one another to be heard and make sure the customers’ orders were correct. Going from sitting for a few hours, to standing for a few hours. Sure Gavin did the exact same thing half the time. But at least he was sitting in a cruiser or at his terminal; or he was up and running to help someone or he was the boots on the ground for whoever he was working with that day. 

Even if Gavin had a bad day at work, he could always grab Hank and pull him aside. Get his opinion on whatever was going on. Usually Gavin only had whatever beat cops got, mostly traffic violations and putting an end to small-time robberies. But every once in a blue moon, Hank would let him in on one of his cases. Gavin got taught first hand how to handle a homicide and how to go about the crime scene. Hank liked to say he was Gavin’s mentor. Gavin liked to say he was Hank’s pet detective. Either way, everyone in the precinct had taken notice of the apparent bond the two of them had. Even better was that the others had realised very quickly that the two of them worked well together. A fresh pair of eyes when one of them was stuck on something. Despite Gavin dealing with petty crime most of the time. But he did have a really good close rate on the cases he did work! He also helped considerably when Hank would pull him in on one of his cases. 

In Gavin’s honest opinion, he thought he would become a detective in no time because of his relationship with Hank. The way that the two of them worked together gave way to how they would handle cases. Full of banter and friendly nitpicking, as well as the occasional hemming and hawing on Hank’s part because he thought Gavin had a slight death wish. It wasn’t a  _ death wish, _ he just didn’t have much of a sense of self-preservation. Besides, without it he could do some much more. That lack of the survival instinct had given him an advantage. There was more than one occasion where he had saved someone because of it. So in Gavin’s opinion, it wasn’t exactly all bad, the fact that he had little to know sense to protect himself. Retreat from battle so that he may live to fight another day kind of thing. 

Though all thoughts of work dissipated once Chris came through the door and half-shouted that he had a package. It wasn’t all that unusual for one of them to get something, but what  _ was _ odd was that neither of them had bought anything that would come through the mail recently. Gavin looked over his shoulder on the loveseat and watched as Chris toed out of his shoes, taking care to set them down in the shoe tray by the door. He looked between the box in his hands and the tree they had yet to take down. With a shrug and small grin, he tapped Gavin on the head with it as he passed by to sit with him on the loveseat. 

“Hey, Gavin,” Chris looked down at the shiny, silver wrapped box in his hands with furrowed brows and then got up so he could stick it under the tree. It had a blue bow slapped on it near one of the corners. “Someone dropped that off for you. Probably a little earlier since it was kinda...damp.”

“They couldn’t just mail it like a normal person?” Gavin immediately moved to sit on the floor and grab the apparent present. “Did’ja pick it up at the Post Office or somethin’?”

“Nah man, it was on the front steps. There’s no return address,” Chris dropped down to the floor next to Gavin and he reached out to pat the bow with a small laugh. The two then moved back to the loveseat when Gavin mumbled something about his tailbone. “I’m guessing it’s some distant relative. Maybe even your dad.”

  
  


Gavin frowned and examined the box in his hands, looking at the handwriting in the middle of the box. Right smack in the middle, and in some blue glittery pen. The handwriting was oddly neat, too. It was way too neat to be Elijah’s handwriting and Gavin knew enough about his biological father to assume that he wasn’t one to write nicely or in sparkly blue ink. Which could have left it being a gift from someone he used to know; though the thought made Gavin huff out a laugh, he never kept in contact with anyone he used to know. He never had many friends after everything with his mother. No one wanted to be the friend of the kid who got into fights as an outlet for his grief. It could have been from Chris, but they already exchanged their gifts on the holiday. Because of the fact that he worked with Hank, it wasn’t like it was a gift from him or his wife. So, despite every instinct that was telling him it could have been something terrible, Gavin beckoned Chris over and then tore into the paper. 

Inside was a bell. Well, it wasn’t exactly a bell, it was something else. But it was bell shaped, and it was made of porcelain, there were a few flowers on it as well as a male cardinal sitting on the top. Gavin lifted the object gingerly, immediately taking note of the fact that it was heavier than it probably should have been. On the underside were two dials, one to be cranked, and one that looked like a little nub. He cranked it, and then clicked the nub one into place, setting it down on the coffee table as it started playing music. There was a sticker on the bottom that said just what it was playing, though Gavin didn’t care to look at it. He instead looked back in the box and found a note. It was from Elijah. It only said that he wished his brother a good holiday, and a good start to the new year as well. That Elijah knew he was much too busy to go out and make a visit to his brother, but knew from what he had heard around the city that Gavin was starting to make a name for himself. Elijah’s note said that he was proud. Though not even with closing the note, did he ever say that he loved Gavin. 

Maybe it was childish for Gavin to hope that his brother would have said he loved him. But there was a part of him that loved his big brother still, and wouldn’t hesitate to say it if the opportunity should arise. Elijah was still withdrawing. Yet he still stayed just close enough that he could know what was going on in Gavin’s life, apparently. He had heard things around the city probably meant that Elijah had spoken with Carl about some of it. Because despite being busy at work, Gavin still made time to call Carl every now and again and give him a life update. The man was practically his father at this point. Somehow, the idea of Elijah speaking with Carl about him didn’t seem as awful and angering as Gavin thought it would be. He chalked it up to the fact that he was happy Carl still had contact with someone he considered a son to him. Carl deserved good things. 

With a ragged sigh, Gavin leaned back on the loveseat and watched the music box as the notes slowly stopped. Not that there was anything to see. It was just a bell. Chris put a hand on Gavin’s knew and gently patted it a few times before getting up and saying he was going to bed. With a smile and a nod, Gavin acknowledged him before winding up the music box again. He closed his eyes and let his head rest against the back of the loveseat. He let the melody flit about the empty space. Something so wonderfully gentle placed into the hands of a man who had little to no ability to be gentle himself. 

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the cardinal music box is a real thing by the way! I can't really find any pictures of it online, so maybe i'll take a picture of mine and put it in the author's note when i get a chance to. But it's actually really pretty!!


	7. Recovering From Hurt

_ June 26th 2024 9:32 AM _

  
  


He got pulled into some homicide case by Hank, a fresh pair of eyes kinda thing. Gavin was honestly convinced the only reason he was allowed to help was because Hank and Fowler had some kind of history. But hey, that was giving him more experience out in the field and he was able to see just what he would be getting himself into in the future. Though Gavin couldn’t help but feel...out of place. He wasn’t supposed to be doing these sorts of things yet. There was a ranking system for a reason. While ultimately he was grateful for the experience, he was starting to think that maybe he would need a little bit before he was really ready for a legitimate murder investigation that was going somewhere. The one he was pulled in on in the beginning of the year was cold, it was shelved for another day. More like another decade, really. But it didn’t go anywhere, and Gavin was grateful for it in some way, because he knew he wasn’t ready for it yet. 

In the here and now, though? Gavin was leaning against one of the walls, right by a window so he didn’t have to suffocate in the fumes of death, and he watched as the other officers and detectives roved the scene. From what he could gather, they thought it was a pretty open and shut case. Robbery gone wrong. But there were a few things that just didn’t make sense. It was  _ too messy, _ if one could even complain about that at the scene of a murder. Killers got sloppy after a while. Or they usually did after some time, at least. But typically all people had to do was wait for the killer to make a mistake, and then they would actually have something to go off of. Now, Gavin was no murderer by any means, but the scene played out before him would never be how he would go about killing someone. 

There was blood everywhere, which was to be expected because humans had quite a bit of it. Though there were spots where it was almost too perfect. Sure it was messy and it was disgusting, but it almost seemed staged. If that was even possible. There was likely no way to really tell because he hadn’t been out to too many active crime scenes. But it almost looked like it was a room from a show; that all of this was made up of props and fake blood and was just a part of a script. It wasn’t until Hank asked him to analyse the scene that Gavin actually spoke up about anything he was thinking. He pointed out that despite the blood spatter on the wall suggesting one angle, it would have been nearly physically impossible for it to happen in relation to how the victim’s body was laying on the floor. Not to mention the clutter seemed to be in patches, rather than just accumulated junk sitting around on the floor. On top of that, there was the severe lack of witnesses; the victim should have been dead for at least three weeks if the stench and stage of decomposition were anything to go off of. Yet no one in the area could recall anything being amiss on the street. Even with what seemed to be a pretty gnarly and violent scene. 

It clicked for Gavin at the same time it did for Hank; it  _ was _ staged, and the body was placed there for the DPD to find. They were dealing with someone who knew exactly what they were doing. Someone cocky enough to play with the police and taunt them with their supposed “skills”. The pair went back around the scream scene, looking for any other clues. Anything that could be considered a signature, or something that quite possibly could have been missing. Killers liked mementoes, they liked trophies. This one very well could have been one who liked placing things for others to find, though. Further the investigation for the attention. After another few minutes of roaming the scene almost aimlessly, Gavin heard Hank shout for him. Once at his mentor’s side, he watched with a frown as Hank held up an envelope rather triumphantly in a gloved hand. Finding notes was never good. 

Though apparently this time it was. The handwritten note detailed locations, times, even names. It was never that easy, it couldn’t be that easy. Though Hank still beamed and handed it off to someone in CSI to put in a bag. It was likely that everything written on that piece of paper was fake and leading to a set-up. Though Hank only clapped Gavin on the back, laughed, and said that was how these things usually worked. Though like with myths and fairytales, there was always a seed of truth hidden in it. All they needed to do was find it, and then they’d be golden. It was the key. Or they hoped it would be at least. Either way, someone planted a body with the intentions of taunting the DPD; there was no way either Gavin or Hank were going to be getting home at a reasonable hour that night. 

  
  


\---

  
  


_ July 31st 2024 4:22 PM _

  
  


The case was slow going, and it was starting to gain attention for that specific reason. Also, y’know, because this had to be an experienced killer. Hank and Gavin had exhausted their resources on crime syndicates and were now down to trying to find whoever the hell it was based on minute pieces of evidence found at the scene. There was no miracle piece of evidence There were no fingerprints left behind, no strang of hair, no carpet fibers. They had jack shit, and Gavin was honestly so stressed that he was convinced he was going to explode. His hands balled up into fists, then he shook them out, shoved them in his pockets, only to repeat the same process over and over again. Hank wasn’t fairing much better, though. Gavin had never seen the man smoke. He was fairly sure that his eyes went as big as the goddamn moon when he heard Hank mutter that he needed a smoke break, and watched as the Lieutenant made his way out the back doors. Against his better judgment, Gavin followed him. 

Hank was leaning against the back wall and had a cigarette hanging from his lips as he scrolled through something on his phone. Or as he tried to at least, every once in a while Gavin would hear him mutter obscenities to himself before ultimately pocketing his phone and taking the cigarette back between his fingers. The older man finally noticed Gavin and then sighed. They mindlessly chatted for a little while, or for as long as they could have maybe. Both of them were on edge. Both of them were stressed. It would only be a matter of time before they made their way back around to the case. To the literal fucking serial killer they had in their own city. What happened to leaving that shit in the 1970’s and letting that be that? No one needed a serial killer, no one wanted a serial killer. After a beat of silence, Gavin snorted and leaned against the wall with Hank, bitterly mumbling that a damn murderer seemed to be having just such a grand old time playing with them. Though Hank only looked at him blankly before asking what he was going to do about it. 

  
  


“I can do just about jack shit here, Hank.” Gavin shuffled his feet and avoided looking at Hank. “You’re the Lieutenant, you’re the guy that’s actually on homicide. Why’re you asking me?”

“You’re young, somehow you’ve got a damn good head on your shoulders, you care about people in a day an’ age where a lot of others don’t.” Hank took a drag of his cigarette and slowly blew out the smoke. “So I’m asking you to flex those tragically underused brain muscles,” Hank paused to laugh when Gavin gently shoved him. “And figure out where to go from here. When it looks like you’ve got nothing else to go off of, what do you do?”

“Grab a fresh pair of eyes. Someone unbiased and not afraid to be honest with me.” The realisation hit Gavin and he shook his head with a laugh. “Damn, you’re really stuck on the case?”

“Not exactly. But a fresh pair of eyes never hurt anybody.”

  
  


They fell into a comfortable silence after that. Hank slowly smoking, which Gavin didn’t think he’d get over anytime soon, and Gavin alternating between watching him and the clouds roll by. Eventually the conversation started back up again, though not about the case. Just...about life. Hank tentatively asked about Chris and what home life was like for the two of them lately. Gavn gave him honest answers; things were actually pretty good, Chris was teaching him how to actually cook something better than macaroni and cheese or an oven pizza. Though Gavin also was well aware of the fact that Hank wasn’t only asking about how home life was. He knew Elijah was his brother. He knew that the whole commercial androids coming out was quite the...stressful situation. Gavin knew Hank only meant well. He never meant to bring up anything bad or to make things tense between the two of them, he was only trying to look out for Gavin. He could appreciate that. 

Though at the thought of relationships and familial ties, it struck Gavin as odd. The fact that Hank was suddenly bringing him in on homicide cases. The fact that Fowler was seemingly alright with it despite the rather obvious emotional compromise. If anything were to happen to either of them, they would instantly go to each other. As much as Gavin shoved the thought out of his mind, he knew he cared about Hank. Saw him as family. There was no doubt that Hank saw Gavin as some sort of family at that point, too. So it made no sense for Gavin to be dragged along on these few cases. It wasn’t sustainable for the rest of the precinct if they were suddenly able to work with whoever the hell they wanted. Sure Hank had a little leeway because he was the Lieutenant, and because of his friendship with Fowler. But it still struck Gavin as odd that Fowler allowed it to happen in the first place. 

  
  


“I’m workin’ my own angle, to be honest with ya.” Gavin squinted at the cigarette and shrugged. “It’s more of my own thing, though.”

“Oh yeah? You got another hot case you’re workin’?”

“Not a case, but an idea.” Gavin looked Hank directly in the eye and crossed his arms. “Why do you keep dragging me into the investigations you get called into? We’re not partners. I’m working with Lewis right now.”

“Because you’ve gotta learn, kid. We know each other and we get along pretty damn well.” Hank took a slow drag of the cigarette and looked down at Gavin, blowing the smoke out the side of his mouth. “Besides, you work homicide like you’ve been doin’ it for years already. You’ll be a detective in no time, Gavin.”

  
  


Hank pushed the stick of chemicals and tobacco against the brick of the building before tossing it in the nearest trash receptacle as he passed it. Which left Gavin behind in the summer afternoon heat, wondering just how long Hank had been planning this for. Had he spoken with Captain Fowler about it? There was no way he wouldn’t have. Fowler was the Captain for fuck’s sake, no one could do anything without his go-ahead. Though Hank just might have been able to get away with it, considering the way he and Fowler seemed to have some sort of history with one another. The ore Gavin thought about it, the more likely it seemed that such a thing was the case. Hank pulled a few strings, Fowler accepted the strings that got pulled, and Gavin ended up on whatever homicide Hank got called into. 

They weren’t partners, though. Hank even said so that night they celebrated Gavin getting the job. They were too emotionally invested in one another, it could make things messy out in the field if they weren’t careful. Yet there Gavin was; abandoned behind the DPD as the brutal summer heat beat down on him, left to wonder just what Hank was thinking. 

And just how long it actually would take for him to become a real detective.

  
  
  
  



End file.
